Using computational and data visualization techniques, we explore 13,208 Instagram images shared by 6,165 people in the central area of Kyiv during 2014 Ukrainian revolution (February 17 - February 22, 2014). (Note that we only consider images which have location information provided by users; according to the recent study, such images are only %18 of the total number shared on Instagram. This means that in the case of Kiev, the total number of shared images shared is also likely to be much higher.)

What can visual social media tell us about the experiences of thousands of people and life in their city during a social upheaval? Our research reveals a high level of involvement of people in Kiev sharing images on Instagram with Maidan movement and February 2014 revolutuon. During this period, 9 most frequently used tags were directly related to the Revolution (#maindan, #euromaidan, #revolution, etc). %14 of all images were shared around The Independence (Maindan) Square, the main site of the demonstrations and confrontations between the protesters and government forces. By analyzing images, hashtags and other data, we discover different types of involvement of people in the revolutionary events in their city.

Our project also explores how during the exceptional events, the exceptional co-exists with the everyday. The images of Maidan clashes, political slogans, and burned cars and buildings appear right next to everything else: selfies, parties, cultural events, etc. Through a number of different visualizations, we explore how the extra-ordinary and ordinary are connected visually (the use of images) and textually (tags).

The Exceptional and the Everyday: 144 hours in Kyiv continues previous work of our lab (Software Studies Initiative, softwarestudies.com) with visual social media: phototrails.net (analysis and visualization of 2.3 Instagram photos in 14 global cities, 2013; selfiecity.net (comparison between 3200 selfie photos shared in six cities, 2014; collaboration with Moritz Stefaner). In the new project we specifically focus on the content of images, as opposed to only their visual characteristics. We use computational analysis to locate typical Instagram compositions and manual analysis to identify the iconography of a revolution. We also explore non-visual data that accompanies the images: most frequent tags, the use of English, Ukrainian and Russian languages, dates and times when images their shared, and their geo-coordinates.

We worked on this project since January 2014 and published it in October 2014.

Visualizations: Visualizing the images and data and interpreting the patterns.

Intro: Discussion of our research methods; a brief summary of the events in Kyiv during February 17-22, 2014.